5. John Kearns

Winner of Best Newcomer at this year’s Edinburgh Festival with his debut solo show, Sight Gags For Perverts. It took its name from a critic’s review of classic cult film Dr Strangelove, which director Stanley Kubrick loved so much, he jotted it down on a list headed “Titles in search of a script”. Bewigged, bespectacled and with a gobful of comedy false teeth, Kearns delivers non-sequiturs, surreal digressions and bizarre lunacy in a style reminiscent of Vic Reeves or Daniel Kitson.

Sample gag: “At the time of my grandmother’s death, we couldn’t afford a casket, so we had to seek sponsorship. We finally ended up with Pringles, the party crisp. They agreed to cover the funeral costs provided the casket was a gigantic Pringle’s tube and in flowers, we spelt out the slogan: ‘Once you’ve popped… your clogs, you can’t stop…. This burial.’”